Women In Distress's Leadership Team is composed of a dedicated Board of Directors and Trustees, as well as, an executive staff who together strive to fulfull our mission each and every day. The Board of Directors consists of highly dedicated individuals representing our diverse community and with various professional backgrounds including executives, domestic violence survivors, legal, law enforcement, political, financial fields, and high profile community donors. The Board oversees our President and Chief Executive Officer Mary A. Riedel, APR, ABC who assumed her position on March 31, 2008.

Women In Distress employs over 85 full-time and part-time members of the community under the direction and leadership of President/CEO Mary A. Riedel. Prior to cultivation and stewardship of major gifts for NSU, Riedel worked in media marketing and community relations for nearly 37 years, including more than 18 years as Community Affairs Manager at the South Florida Sun Sentinel and Publisher of the newspaper’s weekly Society section.

Our Executvie Director of Programs, Sheryl Schwab, is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor with 10 years experience working at WID in a variety of tasks from individual and group counseling to women and children survivors of domestic violence, clinical supervision of counseling staff and interns, community advocate for domestic violence and social change, and most recently overseeing the operations of WID programs and services.

All staff and volunteers are trained and certified according to Florida statute for “Victim Advocate Privilege” and also maintain an additional 24 hours of training annually. WID requires all staff and volunteers to go through Core Competency Training, which provides 24 of the 30 training hours required for all domestic violence advocates to be registered for domestic violence victim/ advocate privilege pursuant to Florida Statutes 90.5036 and 39.905. Staff, volunteers and interns at Women In Distress also participate in the six hours of observational learning. WID staff regularly participates in joint agency trainings with other service providers to ensure all participant needs are met without duplication.